


The Box

by TheRebelFlower



Series: What's in the box [2]
Category: New Captain Scarlet
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:08:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26038426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRebelFlower/pseuds/TheRebelFlower
Summary: So, what did Lieutenant Green do with that damaged box from "Bad Trip"?
Relationships: Serena Lewis | Lieutenant Green/Adam Svenson | Captain Blue
Series: What's in the box [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1890067





	The Box

Captain Blue looked down at the metal tea box he was holding as the Skybase elevator took him up to level 8. The design on it was intricate and parts of it were embossed... The only things marring the beautiful object were two bullet holes—a clean one where the projectile had entered the box, and another, jagged, one where it had come out. He ran his finger over them. He wasn't even sure why he had brought the box back with him. It was useless now. But considering Lieutenant Green's frantic reaction when he had said Doctor Gold had probably thrown away the blood-stained and damaged scarf that came with it, it had apparently been the right thing to do.

She had retrieved the scarf, and as far as Blue knew, was going to try to clean and restore it. She was convinced both objects had saved his life by deflecting the bullet meant for his chest; he simply figured that the man they had caught didn't know how to shoot properly. In his mind, the presents had been ruined and he would have bought her something else. She had refused. He sighed. Sometimes, her romantic views of things were something of a mystery to him.

The elevator doors opened and he stepped out, heading for Green's quarters. His second home, really, as he was there more often than in his own quarters at this point. _And apparently I'm not the only one thinking that_ , he thought, eyeing the cardboard "Captain Blue" ID/Status plate someone had stuck on the wall next to Green's actual one. _Maybe it’s time we do something about this,_ he mused, punching in the access code on the keypad and opening the door.

Green was at her computer, but turned her attention away from it immediately to look at her partner. “Hello, Sunshine,” she said, standing up.

“I come bearing g.. uh… junk!” he replied, extending his arms out theatrically.

He regretted his gesture right away when he felt a painful tug in his right shoulder and arm. The presents—or Christmas Spirit or bad aim of the shooter—had saved him from a mortal wound, but he had still required stitches and had a large bruise where the box had hit him. The pain medication was helping, but he wasn’t as mobile as he usually was and tended to forget about it.

Green smiled fondly and stood up. “Silly man,” she said, not specifying if she was talking about the fact that he had called his present junk or because he wasn’t being careful with his injury. “How was your day?” she asked, kissing him.

“Long and boring because I couldn’t train much with my arm. How was yours?” he asked.

“I just got back from Central Control. Spectrum New York wants to close some files before Christmas so I ended up helping Beth.” She winced, looking guilty. “I’ll have to work after dinner for a little while…”

“Did you want to cancel our dinner date? I can go get something from the canteen and bring it back,” he offered.

“No. I need the break. Besides, I haven’t seen you all day. I want to get away from the computer for a while. We’ll both go. I feel bad enough that I’m cutting our plans short.”

“We’ll be on vacation in a few days. We won’t be staying at my parents’ house the whole time,” he stated, waggling his eyebrows suggestively and holding up the box to hand it to her.

Her amused smile turned to a delighted gasp. “Oh my goodness, Adam…” she whispered, taking it and admiring it.

“Maybe I can weld the holes shut, but it’s still going to show. And I don’t think it would keep the tea fresh, not to mention it’d probably make it taste like crap,” he commented, watching her look at the dented corner of the box and the bullet holes.

She shook her head. “It’ll stay like that. I know exactly what I’ll do with it.”

Holding the box to one side, she used her other arm to hug Blue, nuzzling his good shoulder.

“You’re weird,” he said, hugging her back and kissing her temple.

“I love you too,” she replied, squeezing him affectionately before heading for her chest of drawers.

She opened the top one and took out a plain-looking, slightly worn, rectangular box. “Yes, this’ll be perfect,” she commented, taking both objects back with her to her bed, where she sat cross-legged.

Blue sat down as well, facing her; he had seen the box before when he put clothes away after washing them, but had never looked inside, as this was obviously something personal to her and he didn’t want to pry. Apparently, she considered he deserved to see the contents, and he stupidly felt elated at the thought.

“I keep some precious and important things in here; your box fits the description, and will replace this old thing quite nicely,” she explained, turning the old box over so that it emptied itself onto the bed between them. Some items he recognized right away, such as a Jupiter mission patch and her old Serena Lewis Spectrum badge she had before she became Lieutenant Green. There were also a few pictures, news clippings and folded papers.

He took the new box and opened it, relieved that at least that was intact. He set it back on the bed and looked up to see Green holding a photo. She smiled and handed it to him so he could have a look. It was a wedding picture of her parents. Commander Lewis, then a lieutenant, was in dress uniform. Green’s mother, in a tasteful and elegant gown, was smiling radiantly. The resemblance to her daughter was striking. “So that’s what you’ll look like in a wedding dress, uh?” Blue asked with a lopsided smile.

She looked up at his choice of words. “Will?”

“I’m waiting until things calm down before asking you properly.”

“I see… what if I say no?”

She clearly saw the look of panic in his eyes before he could catch himself and felt a little mean for asking; she already knew what her answer would be anyway. But he handed the picture back to her and said: “Then I’ll have to handle whatever is making you say no and ask again.”

Adam Svenson was a fighter and he would fight for that as well if need be. The determination in his eyes could have scared someone else, but Green felt warm and fuzzy and busied herself with putting the picture, along with the patch and a picture of Commander Lewis in his ISA uniform and a news article in the metal box.

Her father was a bittersweet subject. She had nearly thrown her reminders of him away after what had happened in New Mexico, but held back, as these were memories of the real him, and not the replicant he had become. They were still painful to look at, but in her heart, she knew she still cherished them and they deserved to be there.

Blue spotted something in the pile and picked it up; it was a tassel, more than likely from her time at university. Green moved some of the objects around and found another photograph. “My diploma was too bulky to lug around when I started moving for work. It’s in mom’s beach house in Houston. So I kept the tassel and the picture my friend Annie took…”

It showed Green and her mother, hugging and smiling. The young woman was dressed in full regalia, proudly holding her diploma and sporting an impressive and curly hairdo that went down to the middle of her back. “I know, the hair is horrible. It was hot and humid and the straightening treatment didn’t hold,” Green said.

“What are you talking about? You look beautiful, very sophisticated. I looked like a kid on my official picture from The Point. Would not have scared anyone on the battlefield.”

“I’m sure you looked very dashing in your uniform.”

He shrugged. Hopefully, Green wouldn’t ask his mother to show her all those embarrassing childhood pictures she undoubtedly still had somewhere.

There were some other objects, such as one of Green’s wristbands from when she was admitted into the Texas Children’s hospital, a program from one of her mother’s concerts at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, a small bottle of shampoo from the Tranquility Resort—sealed in a plastic bag to avoid accidental spillage. The tin box looked almost as if it was made to hold all these treasures because everything fit nicely inside. Soon, there was only one thing left, a folded piece of paper. “So what’s this, a love letter from a secret admirer?” he joked, picking it up.

“That would be an interesting thing to call it…”

Her complexion darkened—was she blushing? She looked expectantly as he unfolded the paper, biting her lip. His eyebrows shot up as he saw that it was the apology note he had written to her when he was hired at Spectrum. “You kept that? _Why?_ ” he exclaimed incredulously.

She shrugged, looking embarrassed. “Actually, I had forgotten it in my pocket that day and I found it again when I did the laundry. But even then, I couldn’t throw it away… it put a smile on my face every time. What can I say, I was already having feelings for my brawny, blond, big-man hero guy..."

Blue made a face, folding the note back and putting it in the box.

“What?” Green asked, noticing his expression.

“I dunno… this is kinda sad.”

“What is?”

“That you kept _that_.”

She stood up and took the box to put it away. “Well, sorry for boring you with my romantic collection of trinkets, _including_ things from you.”

“You weren’t boring me!” he protested, standing up as well.

“That note was from you. It means something to me. I thought that you’d at least find it cute to know that I was drawn to you nearly from day one. If you find it so sad, you could have been at least polite and respectful and say nothing.”

“Well, excuse me for seeing things differently!”

“I should have waited to do this when I was alone,” she muttered.

He sighed. “Serena, don’t be upset,” he began, but she slammed the drawer shut and went to sit at her computer, indicating that the conversation was over.

Green was a very confident woman, but sometimes, that confidence turned into a slightly holier-than-thou attitude that left no room for further discussion, so Blue knew that trying to explain what he had meant would fall on deaf ears at this time. She had logged onto the main system and wasn’t looking at him.

“Aren’t you coming down for dinner?” he asked, although he had a good idea of her answer.

“I’m not hungry right now. I’ll have a sandwich later.”

That meant she was going to work late into the evening and that he’d better find something else to do. Not that he felt like staying around if she wasn’t even going to listen to him. Frustrated, but trying to hide it, he walked to her and leant over to kiss her. “Don’t stay up too late. Love you,” he said.

“Goodnight,” came her curt reply.

At least she hadn’t turned her head away… he left her quarters, feeling irritated by the fact that sharing this personal moment with her should have ended in a nice dinner (as much as the canteen allowed that) and hopefully some passionate lovemaking. His irritation went up a notch when he figured he could not vent his emotions on the punching bag in the gym because of his injured arm. He headed for Sickbay; if Scarlet was still there, he was about to become therapist du jour.

***

The following day, Green was coming back from Colonel White’s desk in Central Control when the escalator doors opened to let in both Scarlet and Blue, who were in for a briefing. Scarlet was back to full duty as his injuries were completely healed, whereas Blue was doing light duty until his Christmas vacation—and hers—started in a few days time.

He hadn’t come back to spend the night, which wasn’t such a bad thing because she was still a little miffed that he had called her treasured memories sad. She knew that he wasn’t inclined to keep mementos and was a practical kind of man, but it didn’t mean he could judge her like he had!

Since they were in Central Control and both on duty, she knew that they couldn’t let any personal situations affect their work, so she chose not to say or do anything to draw attention on them. Scarlet smiled at her and stopped close to her computer. “Morning Serena, how are you?” he asked.

She smiled back. “Good morning! Fine, thanks. Glad to see you’re doing better.”

“Hopefully, this mean everyone can have a normal vacation this year.”

Her smile broadened. “Hopefully!”

Scarlet nudged her arm in a friendly way and headed for Colonel White’s office. Blue gave her a silent glance before he followed Scarlet and she wasn’t able to read his expression. _I haven’t even asked him why he said that_ , she realized, and felt a twang of regret because deep down she knew she really had missed his large body taking more than his half of the bed the night before.

Holding back a sigh, she sat at her station, telling herself that she would seek him out later in the day. A quick look at the duty roster told her that he was going to do some maintenance and inventory work at the armory, so she could stop by at lunch time and see if he was available.

She had to go down in the large computer room under Central Control to fix a network problem signaled by Ordnance and when she came back upstairs, Scarlet and Blue were gone. She glanced at her watch. It was going to be a long morning...

***

Luckily for her, Spectrum New York seemed to have calmed down with the requests and she was able to leave her computer a few hours later. She connected the comm. link to her Spectra-tech and after making sure White didn’t need her for anything, left Central Control. She thought of heading down to the armory right away, but changed her mind and went to her quarters first to freshen up. She was feeling a little nervous and chided herself about it as she opened her door and stepped into her quarters, but considered listening to her little inner voice suggesting to use a dab of that perfume she knew he loved.

There was an envelope on the kitchenette counter. She stopped in her tracks when she saw it, not welcoming at all the sting of dread at the back of her skull. “It could be one of the girls,” she told herself, but at the same time, knew that only one other person had her entry code besides Spectrum security.

A few steps took her to the counter and she saw her name in Blue’s familiar scrawl. “Oh, Adam,” she murmured, but frowned when she saw that he had drawn a heart on the envelope as well.

A heart.

It was rather ugly.

The man didn’t have a single artistic bone in his body, but at the moment, it was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen. The envelope wasn’t sealed and when she opened it, she saw that it was a hand-written letter. “Oh, Adam,” she repeated, her voice almost a whisper, as she began to read:

I love you.

I have loved you from the beginning.

To know that you were returning those feelings from the beginning as well always comes as a shock to me. You are beautiful, intelligent and you more than likely had a lineup of guys waiting for you to look in their direction. For some reason, you chose the battle-scarred, unrefined soldier. I don’t know what I did to be blessed like this.

I felt privileged that you shared what was in the box with me. That you chose my battle-scarred present to hold your treasures. But when I saw that you kept that note from me, it was a shock. And it was sad, I’m still saying that. It was sad because that box should have been full of inflamed love letters full of romantic poems and all that happy horseshit, and all you have is something where I say I’m sorry for being an ass (which I was on both accounts). It was something you should have thrown away without a second thought, but I guess it was all you had, so you kept it.

I have failed at a rather basic boyfriend function. I suck at writing poems. I suck at writing anything romantic, really. I’m not good with words. I know it’s not an excuse. Expect crappy attempts in your future. In the meantime, though, I hope that I was able to show you how I feel about you in other ways.

  1. xox



P.S.: I kept the faulty magazine from your training. So yes, I get the box.

Green stared at the sheet of paper, biting her lip. The sting of worry had been washed away by warmth and she felt nervous and giddy laughter bubble up in her throat. So he wasn’t angry after all. And he deserved an apology. She folded the letter and kissed it, before putting it back in its envelope and then in the box, the only place it could go. Forgetting about the freshening up and the dab of perfume, she exited her quarters and headed for the armory with a determined and hurried step.

***

He was alone in the room when she got there. He was sitting at the work table, validating the inventory. He looked up when he heard the door open and Green saw uncertainty in his azure gaze. _Falling in love again..._ she thought, stepping in and letting the door close behind her. “You say you’re not good at writing romantic things... could have fooled me. That attempt was pretty spot on,” she said.

He shrugged, obviously not at ease with the praise and watched her cross the room to stand behind him. She bent down and hugged him, pressing the side of her head against his for a moment before kissing his cheek. “Sorry for that outburst and for kicking you out last night. It was my turn to be an ass.”

“Well, at least you’re a loveable ass,” he quipped, folding his arms over hers to hold her where she was. “Apology accepted.”

She nuzzled his neck. “I still kept the other note, though.”

“St. Jude, please leave that gorgeous body,” he muttered, rolling his eyes, but he was smiling at the same time.

The nuzzling turned into a kiss. “Are you hungry?” she asked.

“For food?”

“Well, yes, I have to get back to Central Control by one,” she replied, disappointed to turn down what he was implying.

He sighed. “Shame.”

“If you can hold that thought until tonight when we have another go at our date, though… I have nothing planned work-wise and I’ll be _very_ hungry.”

“Maybe we should go for a home-cooked meal, then,” he commented, twisting around to kiss her fully on the lips.

The door to the armory opened and Scarlet came in. He moved back a little in surprise of finding Blue and Green in a tight embrace, but smiled at seeing that things had obviously improved for his friends. “Sorry for interrupting guys! I was just stopping by to see if Adam would join Simone and me for lunch,” he said. “You’re welcome too, of course,” he added, looking at Green.

“Sure, why not?” she replied, straightening up, but keeping Blue’s hand in hers when he stood up.

They followed Scarlet out to see that Destiny Angel was waiting in the corridor. All four set out for the canteen, with Blue and Green behind the other couple. The young woman tugged at her partner’s hand to bring him closer and asked quietly: “Are you doing the cooking tonight, then?”

“Sure, why not.”

“Okay. I’ll send you suggestions during the afternoon.”

Something in her voice made him look at her. She was smiling in _that_ way, the little minx. The second part of his shift was going to be pure torture.

He was already looking forward to it.

**Author's Note:**

> I have to admit, this story is pure self-indulgence on my part. I missed playing with Blue and Green so why not take the opportunity to do a Valentine’s Day-ish snippet! I already knew that Green had kept the note all along; unexpectedly, the story Bad Trip told me where she kept it and how Blue found out about it.


End file.
